Today I want to talk about a 3-day-millinery course I was able to attend in school. It was exclusive for the masterclass for stage costumes and it was optional to participate.
First things first: What did I choose to make?
Well. We had to make a headpiece and an extra thing for our costumes, we’re making in school. Since I don’t have a hat or something similar and am confident to make my hair-decoration I will need by myself, I decided to make a top hat! Top hats work with so many historical outfits and also fit almost throughout the whole 19th century.
I also love the look of them and I want to make a riding habit sometime soon too to wear it with.
For my headpiece I decided to make a 20s inspired headband. I think they look very elegant and since we’re entering the new 20s soon I thought this was quite fitting.
Since we are a class for stage costumes our course teacher was from a theatre and we used the techniques she uses there.
I startet with my top hat which was quite fascinating.
The first thing I had to do was steaming the felt to the hat block. This was quite easy and the fabric was almost molding itself to the wood. then I had to stitch together the seam and the top of the hat. This again was put over the hat block.
Then I also had to but the felt on the brim block where it also got steamed and secured with pins and a string.
The last step on the first day for this hat was drenching everything in a chemical starch (It’s called BBC50 here and smells like nail polish remover only A LOT stronger).
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I also started with my headpiece on this day with felt which was pre-starched with BBC50. I decided what shape I wanted, cut it out, pinned it to a wood head and steamed it into shape.
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The next two days we took the things off of the blocks and I startet covering the hat parts with a black silk satin.
A LOT of glue was involved and also a lot of hand sewing which wasn’t so easy because the felt was not very easy to sew through.
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After the brim and the hat were covered with the silk they got stitched together by hand and I only had left to sew in the lining.
I already sewed it in completley but I decided that I didn’t like the lining and now the hat sits at home waiting for a new one. 😀
The headband also was made in the remaining two days. I sewed in a small piece of rubber band because without it I wouldn’t get it on my head.
I also sewed on millinery wire and covered the headpiece with a wonderful indian changeant dupion silk I had at home.
I decided to not put on my planned decorations because I wanted to wait for the dress design I still need to come up with to go with the headband.
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